Ultra Rescue Initiative, Mission Start!
by Fenghuang0296
Summary: "Hi, everyone! I'm Skye, leader of the Ultra Rescue Initiative Squadron A! It's my job to go save people in worlds that are on the brink of destruction, with my partner, Necrozma. Come with us on an interdimensional Pokémon adventure, filled with RAINBOWS and FUN and NO DEATH . . okay, no, this was a bad idea. Why are we recruiting anyway, this story's cast is already too big . ."
1. Dimension UMOC

Dimension UM+OC

Elio stepped out of the fridge. "Skye? We're out of milk,"

"So? What do you want me to do about it?" The vaunted leader of the Ultra Rescue Initiative was reclining on a couch watching TV.

"It's your turn to get the groceries this week," Elio informed her.

"No it's not, it's the new girl's,"

"Who, Kris?" Elio considered the green-haired girl who had joined their operation the preceding week. ". . . Did you tell her it was her turn?"

"I wrote her name on the chore roster," Skye waved him off. "Now quiet, there's a documentary on,"

The black-haired Alolan boy was about to protest, but paused. "Since when do you watch documentaries?"

"Since they're about us. Check it out!"

The milk forgotten, Elio scrambled through the adjoining door between the kitchen and the rec room, sitting in an armchair and focusing on the TV.

"Everyone's been talking about the new project started recently by the Aether Foundation. In the wake of the recent invasion of our universe by an interdimensional counterpart to the criminal organisation called Team Rocket, whose membership consisted predominantly of interdimensional counterparts to many of the most dangerous criminals in recent history, it has been brought to the attention of Aether President Lusamine that there are a number of alternate dimensions facing various catastrophes. The Ultra Rescue Initiative is a collective effort on the part of the Aether Foundation, the International Police, and an alternate dimension faction known as the Ultra Recon Squad, to send people through wormholes to other dimensions and rescue as many people and Pokémon from these collapsing dimensions as possible,"

A large blue Pokémon loped into the room, supporting a green-haired teenager who looked sleepy. "Can you turn that down? 'M trying to sleep," she mumbled.

Skye cast Kris a sympathetic look. "Still getting over the interdimensional jet lag?"

Kris' incoherent mumble was all that the team leader needed to hear as confirmation. She fumbled for the remote, eventually pressing the volume down button. "Go back to bed, kid,"

The kid in question scoffed, blearily focusing on Skye and removing her hand from her partner's back, trying to focus without the aid of Suicune. "You're, what, two years older than me?"

The navy-haired girl shrugged noncomittally. "Something like that. Go to bed,"

Suicune twisted, pushing her Trainer back out of the room, who blearily nodded and stumbled out. Satisfied that the rookie of the team was gone, Skye refocused on the TV. "Reports from their second major operation have been coming in, which occurred less than a week ago. It is difficult to extrapolate the exact nature of circumstances, but interviews with the refugees seem to indicate that their dimension was in the process of complete spatial collapse when Ultra Rescue Squadron A appeared. The refugees include more than seven hundred people, as well as over a thousand Pokémon, including several Eon Pokémon, a Rayquaza, and a Suicune,"

"Do you think they're going to talk about us?" Elio asked, and Skye shushed him.

"This has been made possible primarily through the efforts of a highly skilled Pokémon Trainer named Skye, whose last name is currently unknown. She is responsible for befriending and enlisting the aid of a powerful, recently-discovered Legendary Pokémon named Nekorazmer, whose -"

The bluenette's eye twitched. "His name is Necrozma, dumbass!" she shouted at the TV.

Uninterrupted, the reporter continued. "- ability to open portals to other universes has been pivotal for the organisation. Details about this self-proclaimed Dragon-Type Specialist are unfortunately sparse, as she seems to -" The picture abruptly died with a flicker.

"What did you do that for?" Elio asked, seeing the remote in Skye's hand.

"I don't need to be reminded that literally no one knows anything about me, including me," Skye huffed, before blinking. ". . Well crap,"

Elio cast her a sympathetic look. "Well whoever you are, you're doing a good job here,"

"Well, duh," the bluenette cast her teammate an unimpressed look. "We have three Aether Paradises tied together under our feet, and two of them are there because we pulled them out of worlds that were about to stop being worlds. We've been doing this for less than a month and already saved upwards of four thousand living beings. I don't need to be told that we're doing a good job,"

"Well, don't get too big-headed. We're still out of milk," Elio snorted.

"I told you, not my fault," Skye whined in response.

"Sure it isn't," Elio snorted, folding his arms.

A smile played across the bluenette's lips, and she sat up, folding her arms. "I don't even drink milk,"

"Doesn't matter. You're the one who started the chore roster,"

"Yeah, but that was so that you subordinates would do all the work and I could relax," Skye retorted.

"You're a terrible boss," Elio rolled his eyes.

"I told you, stop calling me that," her voice returned to the pitch of a petulant whine. "Why don't you go pick up Lillie, see a movie or something? If I'm a terrible boss, you're an equally terrible boyfriend, you know,"

Elio blushed, and Skye grinned. He was so much fun to tease. "It's not like that," he mumbled. "We're just friends,"

"Please. She looks at you like Kommo-o looks at his bed. There is love in that gaze,"

"W-well what about Soliera?" the Alolan boy burst out.

Skye blinked, thinking of their alien teammate from Ultra Megalopolis. "Isn't she a bit old for you?"

"I'm not the one she's interested in," Elio emphasised.

The team leader considered this. "Naah, not buying it. You don't even know that she swings that way,"

"I have intuition," Elio defended himself.

"You mean the same intuition that made you think it was a good idea to take on an angry Stakataka with your Togekiss?"

"You're the one who told me to recruit Togekiss!" Elio snapped.

"As a healer, not a fighter," Skye scoffed.

"I still don't get why you couldn't train Togekiss yourself," the boy snorted.

"Because, I'm a Dragon-Type specialist," Skye said slowly, as though struggling to make herself understood. "I can't train Pokémon that aren't Dragon-Types. It would defeat the purpose,"

"You're weird, you know that?"

"I'm one of a kind is what," the bluenette retorted.

Elio hummed for a second. "So, about the absence of milk in the fridge,"

"I'll tell Kris when she wakes up, okay?" Skye waved him off.

"No you won't. You'll forget as soon as I stop talking about it. Also, it's your job!"

"Well what about your weekly chores? You're supposed to . . be . . um . ."

The dark-haired Trainer watched his commander struggle for a moment. "You don't remember what I'm supposed to be doing this week, do you?"

"Gimme a hint?"

"This week it's my turn to feed all the baby Cosmogs in the nursery. Which I've done. Whereas last week you just dumped a big bag of feed in their enclosure and called it done,"

"I have Necrozma, what will I ever need with those little gas balls?" Skye shot back.

"And when one of those Cosmogs grows up into a Lunala, sees the person who dumped a bag of food on their head when they were a baby, and decides to get their own back with a Moongeist Beam? You'll be eating those words,"

Skye spluttered, unable to formulate a comeback, and Elio smirked triumphantly.

"I'll just have to train a Normal and Dragon Type. We're not far from Ula'Ula Island, I could fly over to Mount Lanakila and catch a Drampa," she finally declared.

"So, you'd rather go to all the trouble of catching and training a new Pokemon so that you can use them as a living shield in a very specific set of circumstances, than just being nice to a few baby Pokémon?"

Once again, Skye was at a loss for words. "Well . . anything can sound stupid if you say it in the right way," she snorted.

"Also, what about the ones that evolve into Solgaleo and hit you with Sunsteel Strike?" Elio teased.

Skye frowned. ". . What resists Steel-Type again?"

"There is a laminated print-out of the type chart on the fridge. You have to look at it every time you get food. How do you not have it memorised?" Elio protested.

"Because I'm forgetful. We've established this,"

"Actually, this is the first time it's come up in the story," Elio corrected her.

Skye raised an eyebrow. "Don't worry about the readers, they'll pick it up. Just worry about the fact that it's almost closing time and you haven't gone to buy fresh milk yet,"

"Crap! Gotta go!" Elio gasped and dashed out of the room. Three seconds later, the penny dropped. "Hold on a second!"

A/N

**A/N**

**So, I needed a break from Phoenix's Eye (seriously, six hundred thousand words plus, I don't know how I did it) and everyone's talking about Pokémon lately. So I decided to take a crack at a story idea I've been nursing for quite a while.**

**That said, calling this a 'story' is probably being generous. It'll be more like a series of shorts/drabbles, non-linear, just whenever I want to write something for this universe that I've been wanting to write about for quite a while. That's why there's no numbers in the 'chapter titles'. I might go back and add some in later, I'm easy. All the same, enjoy!**


	2. Dimension CS-PL

Dimension CS-PL

"Typhlosion . . Typhlosion, come back . . stop running, Suicune . . we have to go back for Typhlosion,"

The meaningless words looped through Kris' head as she stared backwards, watching the ripples from Suicune's paws on the water spread behind them as the Aurora Pokémon ran. The sky above was dark, intermittently flashing with colourful lights, all spreading outwards into space, and sucking reality into the massive hole in space and time that had already eaten most of Sinnoh, Kanto and Johto.

Kris managed to wrest her eyes from the mesmerising black void long enough to see that they were passing to the north of Hoenn. She could distantly see Mt. Pyre.

Suddenly, Suicune increased her speed, and, sparing a glance, Kris saw why; a roaming tentacle of nothingness had fallen from the sky and carved a gulf of nothingness into the ocean, coming uncomfortably close. The once-Champion of the Johto Region stared dumbly into the void. Typhlosion was somewhere in there. Johto and all of its people were somewhere in there.

Looking ahead, Kris found a shining nexus of bright lights coming up. For a second the space centre, no doubt on high alert, dazzled her vision, and then Mossdeep was gone, receding into the distance - and then Mossdeep was gone for real, its lights extinguished by the nothingness.

Champion. That was funny. That was so, so, unbelievably hilarious. Who was she, Kris, not even fifteen yet, to call herself a Champion? She hadn't done anything to save her home . . by the time she even knew there was a threat Sinnoh had ceased to exist. Suicune had snatched her out of her chair and started running, ten seconds before her house stopped existing. And left Typhlosion . . and all of her other Pokémon . . all of _the_ other Pokémon . .

Most of Hoenn had disappeared while she was ruminating. A few Pokémon, fast ones - she could see a Pidgeot breaking the sound barrier, and a pair of Eon Pokemon - were trying to escape the destruction. So far, they were succeeding.

Something occurred to her that she probably should have thought of before. "Hey, Suicune. Where are we going?" If that black hole was just going to eat everything, was there even any point in running?

Suicune whined consolingly, and Kris nodded to herself. "Right," The Legendary Water-Type was much older and more knowledgeable than her. She knew something. She could do something about this. It wasn't hopeless. It. Wasn't. Hopeless.

They hit land, Kris wasn't sure where. The world span around her as Suicune climbed up a hill and scoured the horizon to get her bearings.

Staring back at the hole, Kris flinched, seeing a lashing, distorted tendril of nothingness racing through the land and ocean towards her. She drew breath, warning Suicune to move, to run, but it was too fast, targeting her with almost deliberate precision.

Slowly, Kris' life flashed before her eyes. So this was how it ended.

Golden light flared from overhead, and the destructive force suddenly recoiled, carving a triangular shape into the coastline but stopping short of the green-haired girl and Suicune. With a halting, jerky motion, Kris looked up.

For the briefest second, a shining golden dragon hovered above her. Seen from above she could barely make out the details, but it had a long, spiked tail and massive feet made of shimmering crystals. It shone brightly, almost replacing the sun that had been blocked out by the void.

"Necrozma!" a voice rang out from above, and Kris squinted. Was there someone riding that dragon? It was shining so brightly, she could barely look at it. "Use Photon Geyser!"

And the dragon roared, unleashing a mighty wave of focused light like a laser that hammered into the nothingness, somehow stopping it.

"Hey! You down there!" Kris and Suicune looked up. There was someone riding the dragon; an older girl with blue hair wearing some kind of spacesuit. "Get to Aether Paradise! In Alola! That's the extraction point!"

Kris blinked, but the dragon - Necrozma - was already gone. "Who the hell was that?"

Suicune growled, and the once-Champion nodded, regaining her senses. "Um, right. Do you know which way to go to get to the Alola region?"

The Legendary Dog nodded, gesturing with her chin across the water in an totally different direction to the one they had been fleeing in before.

"Do you have a better idea on where to go?"

After a moment's thought, Suicune shook her head. "Then let's go," Kris nodded, trying to convince herself as much as Suicune. Her Pokémon nodded, leaping back onto the surface of the water and taking off once more.

X

Kris had never been to Alola before. Actually, she'd never been anywhere except Kanto and Johto. That said, it was obvious where they were supposed to go well before the islands were even in sight.

There was a beacon shining on the horizon, a massive pillar of light that guided them both. Upon getting closer, Kris saw that the beacon was arising from possibly the largest boat she'd ever seen; a huge, white building floating in the surface of the ocean that was surely very nice but hard to appreciate because it was absolutely packed with Pokémon and people. Boats of various sizes and descriptions were surrounding it, all tied together with ropes and chains and anything else that could come to hand.

With a mighty leap, Suicune flew upwards and landed on the deck, narrowly avoiding trampling a Delibird.

"Alola!" someone shouted, and Kris looked around, her eyes alighting on a tanned boy with black hair wearing a spacesuit similar to that of the girl with Necrozma. "Is that Suicune yours? If so, can you return it? We need to make as much space as possible!"

Kris blinked. "Um . . Suicune?" Her Pokémon nodded, and she tapped the Pokeball on her belt. The Aurora Pokemon vanished in a flash, and Kris promptly navigated several wild Pokémon to reach the trainer. "What's going on here?"

"Your world's about to be destroyed," he quickly told her, before shouting; "Okay, back it up over there! We have a boat looking to dock. Keep it moving, all of you!"

"Well, that's obvious - wait. Did you just call it 'my world'?" Kris checked.

"Yep. Name's Elio, I'm wth the Ultra Rescue Initiative. No time to talk, keep it moving, into the Warp Hole!" Elio gestured to the flow that was slowly moving into the bowels of Aether Paradise from outside.

Kris was about to respond, but there was a golden flash from behind her. She span, as did most everyone in the vicinity, to see the golden dragon from before, hovering above the crowd. "Elio!" the dragon's blue-haired rider shouted. "The spatial collapse is increasing rapidly! We need to go!"

"Ult-roger, Skye!" Elio shouted back. He frowned for a second and an Abra Teleported in next to him. "Abra, get me to Lunala!"

"Wait!" Kris protested, grabbing Elio's wrist - and suddenly they were somewhere else, sitting on the back of an unfamiliar Pokémon that resembled a bat, with curved gold blades on its wings. Luckily, its back was just barely wide enough for them both.

"Hey!" Elio shot her an annoyed look, before sighing and shaking his head. "Ugh, no time,"

Looking around, Kris had to agree. The spatial distortion, the black hole, was covering half the horizon. It seemed like the only thing holding it back was a shield of Psychic energy around the boats moored to Aether Paradise, whose source seemed to be the golden - Necrozma.

"Hold on tight!" Elio commanded, before raising his arm, which had a stone bracelet of some kind wrapped around it. He suddenly stood, balancing easily, and posed, making a swirling motion that ended in a position with hands raised around his face as though in an effort to be scary. "Lunala, get ready! Use Menacing Moonraze Maelstrom!" The bracelet, which Kris now saw had a purple crystal strapped into it, flashed with light, and orange light spread from Elio's body to infuse Lunala. The massive bat shrieked, spreading her wings wide, and, suddenly, in the sky before them, opened a rip in space. Unlike the distortion behind them, this one was glowing purple and blue, with a curving white grid pattern leading into it.

Lasers arced from Lunala's wings, finding the edges of the wormhole and guiding it outwards, spreading it wider and wider until it was large enough that, Kris suspected, all of Aether Paradise could pass through it. Which was probably the point.

"You're from another dimension," she realised, looking at Elio.

Below them, Aether Paradise began to move, pushed by what had to be hundreds of Pokémon, galvanised into action by Psychic commands and dragging the attached boats with them.

"That's right," Elio dropped his pose, seemingly content that Lunala could keep the portal open. "We're the Ultra Rescue Initiative. It's our job to go to dimensions on the brink of destruction and rescue as many humans and Pokémon as possible before it all goes into the recycle bin," He scratched his head idly. "Gotta tell ya, when I signed on for this story I didn't think I'd face the total collapse of space-time,"

"And," Kris gestured at the blindingly brilliant dragon that was called Necrozma and its rider. "Who's that?"

"You mean Skye? She's the leader of our little operation. I wanna say it's only because Necrozma doesn't trust anyone else, but all things considered she deserves the title. She just has this way of making impossible things seem totally doable,"

Kris nodded to herself. "I can believe that,"

"And also making totally achievable things seem completely impossible, but that's less impressive - wait," Elio stiffened, and the Johtonian followed his gaze.

On the far end of the barrier, something was being not nothing in the nothingness. Something was beating against the barrier. They watched as Necrozma swivelled to reinforce it - and it shattered.

Kris gasped.

A Palkia - an honest-to-Arceus _Palkia_ \- erupted from the barrier, but it looked wrong, diseased, by the void. It shrieked in pain and fury and lunged straight at the shining dragon, drawing a trail of non existence in the sky.

The once-Champion didn't want to admit it, but she was afraid. "That . . should we help them?"

Elio shook his head. "My job is to protect the refugees. Skye's got this," He looked back just in time to see the stern of Aether Paradise vanish into the Warp Hole. "Speaking of which, time to go. Lunala?" The bat trilled, before diving into the shrinking Warp Hole.

"Wait, what about Skye?"

"She'll catch up!" And then they were inside the Warp Hole, following a bridge of stardust towards another reality. Kris watched, dismayed, as the portal shrunk and disappeared behind them.

That was her whole world that just vanished. ". . What now?" she mumbled.

"Huh?" Elio questioned.

"My family, my Pokémon, everything I've ever known is gone. What am I supposed to do now?"

"Well, we are building outposts in uninhabited dimensions out in Ultra Space. They could always use more people," the interdimensional Alolan suggested, before registering that Kris didn't seem to be a fan of the idea. "But if life as a colonist doesn't suit you, the Ultra Rescue Squad can always use more recruits. There actually aren't that many of us right now,"

"Um," The idea was surprising, to say the least. "You think I could?"

Elio shrugged. "I just met you. I don't know anything about how strong or capable you are. But this is a pretty cheap story and I doubt the author would introduce a character who couldn't handle herself, so there's no reason not to give it a go,"

"You're so nonchalant," Kris mumbled. "My whole life just got sucked into a black hole . . do you know what caused that, anyway?"

"I can guess. About a decade ago in our dimension, a guy named Cyrus tried to harness the powers of Palkia and Dialga to destroy the universe and remake it all on his own. By doing so he really pissed off Giratina, who killed him. I was a bit young at the time, but that's what I heard. But, not too long ago we encountered a Cyrus from another dimension, who apparently succeeded in unmaking his own reality only to be forcibly recruited by this other dimension hopper named Giovanni, and I guess that was the Cyrus from your dimension and that big black hole with the insane Palkia was the result,"

Trying to process this, Kris blinked owlishly at him. ". . . I think I got . . none of that,"

"I'll show you the mission logs when we get back to my home dimension," Elio assured her, before looking up. "Speaking of, this is our stop! Lunala?" The giant bat roared, before plunging through another portal.

"This is my life now," Kris mumbled to herself. "Joining up with a team of interdimensional disaster relief volunteers, to explore alternate universes and save people like me," A slightly deranged smile crossed her lips. "Well, being Champion of Johto was getting boring anyway,"


	3. Dimension UMOCFF

Dimension UM+OC=FF

Kris started as Skye walked into the red room carrying a massive rolled-up paper under her arm. "Whoa. What's that?"

Skye promptly unrolled it, revealing a massive poster of a dark-skinned man with a red bandanna and a black coat with a gold undershirt. "Check it out!" she squealed in very un-Skye-like excitement. "The tourist place in Hau'oli City got a shipment in from the Galar region, including posters of all their Gym Leaders! And this guy is the best one of them all!"

"Who is he?" the green-haired Ultra Rescue rookie asked.

"He's Raihan! The top Dragon-Type Specialist and Gym Leader in Galar, possibly in the whole world! He's second only to the Champion in Galar, he's so cool!"

"So, you're a fan?" Kris chuckled.

"I totally am! He even has a Flygon too!" On an impulse, Skye released her own Flygon, who looked at her inquisitively. "I wonder how you'd stack up against Raihan's Flygon," she questioned.

"Why don't you go find out?" Kris idly suggested. "Necrozma can open portals, and if he's a Gym Leader he's gotta take challengers, right? You could go there, battle him, get him to autograph your poster and be back for dinner,"

Skye blinked. "Kris, you're a genius! Flygon, you in?" The bug-like Dragon nodded, looking interested, and Skye Returned him, before running out of the room, shrieking; "Gonna go meet my idol back for dinner bye!"

"I hope this doesn't lead to a repair bill from Galar," Kris mumbled.

X

The first Hammerlocke knew of this was when a hole ripped open in the sky and a blindingly brilliant golden dragon soared down to land in front of Hammerlocke Stadium.

Necrozma soared straight through the massive doorway leading to the register, before vanishing in a flash as Skye returned him to his Ultra Ball. She immediately spotted someone official-looking, ignoring the startled exclamations of passers-by, and declared, "I'm here to challenge the Hammerlocke Gym!"

"Sorry, but only people with seven Galar gym badges can challenge this Gym," The attendant was unmoved.

Skye blinked. ". . What?"

"You have to challenge the Galar gyms in a specific order. Sorry, but that's the rules,"

"Hey!" Fuming, the Trainer turned - and found the object of her attention, Raihan himself, standing behind her. He was incredibly tall, towering head and shoulders over the younger Dragon Specialist. "Whoa! Hey!"

"Hey, I know who you are. You're that leader of the Ultra Rescue something or other. The one calling herself an Alolan Dragon-Type Gym Leader,"

"Technically I'm a Trial Captain, and technically-technically the Pokémon run it themselves, I just check in with the Totem Kommo-o from time to time . . but yes! I'm Skye, I'm a huge fan, and I came here to see how me and Necrozma stack up against one of the top Dragon trainers in the world!"

"Well, you know how to flatter a guy," Raihan jovially responded. "Well, I almost never get challengers anyway - all but the very best drop out before even reaching my Gym," He grinned. "Tell you what, I don't have anything better to do this afternoon. Meet me here at 2 PM, and I'll show you how the Champion's rival blows away the competition. Just don't expect to win, Legendary or no Legendary,"

"Deal!" the Trial Captain eagerly agreed. Her fellow Dragon specialist was about to offer a handshake, but his phone buzzed.

Skye watched inquisitively as he snatched it from a pocket, taking the call. "You've got Raihan," Someone on the other end of the line was shouting. "Uh-huh," More shouting. "Okay, got it," He span, looking apologetic. "Bad news, we're gonna have to postpone. There's a wild Dynamax Pokémon rampaging in Dappled Grove. It's not far, but I'm the closest Gym Leader around, so I've gotta deal with it,"

"Well, I'll come help!" Skye immediately declared. Raihan considered this for a second, and nodded. "Sounds good! Let's go!"

X

Dappled Grove was a peaceful area; a field full of trees, nestled in the corner of the Wild Area south of Hammerlocke. The kind of place you might go for a picnic.

Unfortunately, the picnic would have to wait, as the grove was being torn up by some kind of giant monster.

"You know what Dynamax is, right?" Raihan checked, and Skye nodded. "It's a thing where a Pokémon gets super big,"

"Basically. It's possible for Trainers to use it, but for safety reasons we don't let it last for more than a minute in official matches. Wild Pokémon don't care about League rules, though,"

"Got it," Skye nodded. "So, what are we fighting?" She squinted, and suddenly saw a massive green head erupt from the mountains before them, shrieking, and fired a beam of light at their flying taxi.

The Corviknight flying them narrowly dodged, and landed. "Sorry, but this is as close as I can get you," the taxi driver apologised.

"No worries, you did great," Raihan assured him, and Skye nodded agreement as they scrambled out.

They rounded a hill and found a tree being knocked from its roots by a giant green tail. Raihan ducked. Skye was unmoved, released Necrozma, and commanded, "Photon Geyser!" A blast of Psychic light obliterated the tree, and the golden dragon roared.

"That's one cool partner you have," Raihan admitted, and Skye grinned. "Let's go fight! Come on, Necrozma!" she declared, running through the trees ahead of her teammates, and finding herself stunned by the nature of their opponent.

It was a giant apple.

Twenty metres tall, the massive apple towered over them, with syrupy fluid trickling down from its uppermost part - and then a giant head erupted from the apple, green and scaly and wearing a chunk of apple like a helmet, through which its eyes protruded. An overwhelmingly sweet smell wafted from its every pore, and a huge, thrashing tail beat at the ground around it. "Whoa," Skye mumbled.

"I see. It's a Gigantamaxed Flapple . . or it is an Appletun?" Raihan caught up and sniffed, tasting the air. "No, that's a Flapple alright. Appletun don't smell quite as sweet,"

"Flapple? I haven't heard of those," Skye admitted.

"They're Grass and Dragon-Types," Raihan explained. "One of the evolved forms of a Pokémon called Applin. I heard stories that they could Gigantamax but I've never seen it before. They don't normally look like this, they're supposed to have wings, but I guess it's keeping them furled to hold all that nectar in . . Skye?" he looked at the other trainer, concerned, realising she wasn't paying attention.

"Did you say that thing's a Dragon-Type?" she asked.

"Yep . . why?"

"I want it!" she shrieked. "Hey! Flapple!"

With a crooning moan, the massive apple dragon twisted its neck to look down at her. A massive drop of syrupy saliva fell from its lips and Skye neatly sidestepped it, pointing up at it. "You are going to be part of my team, got it?! Necrozma, use Dragon Pulse!"

The massive - though not nearly as massive as Flapple - dragon burst through the trees and shot a beam of draconic energy into the wild Pokémon's face. Flapple reared back and twisted its tail, launching a flying blow that crashed into Necrozma. The solar Pokémon staggered in mid-air, righting itself and grasping the other dragon's tail.

"Can't let her show us up, can we?" Skye watched as a wristband Raihan was wearing flashed, energy flowing from it into a Pokéball that suddenly swelled and turned white, growing to the size of a large melon, and then he threw it up into the air. "Let's blow this beast away, Duraludon!" Red light shone as the Pokémon within manifested in shadow, a silhouette that grew and swelled outwards and upwards until it finally cleared up into an equally massive metal dinosaur with a glowing blue triangle on its stomach and an elongated neck that resembled a skyscraper, with a somewhat squashed-looking head at the top.

"You've got one too? Okay, now I definitely need to catch this guy!" Skye declared. "Necrozma, Prismatic Laser!"

"Use G-Max Depletion!" The two attacks hit the massive Flapple simultaneously, and to Skye's chagrin, it seemed much more affected by Raihan's dragon than hers. Though as it promptly retaliated with a shockwave of Dynamax power and a flying barrage of explosive apples that landed around Duraludon and exploded with tart-flavoured power, perhaps Necrozma got off lightly.

"So is that a Dragon and Steel type? Didn't know there were any, other than Dialga," Skye conversationally offered as Duraludon caught Flapple's tail with both arms and heaved, trying to upend the other Gigantamax.

"Yep! Native to the Galar region. Isn't he beautiful?" Raihan nodded, before suddenly grabbing Skye and holding up his phone. "Selfie!" With a flash, the image of Raihan's grin and Skye's surprise, with a background of the two Dynamaxed Dragons and Ultra Necrozma hovering over them, was recorded forever.

"Are you seriously taking a - Necrozma, dodge and use Charge Beam! - selfie right now?"

"Of course! It's a great picture, you have to admit," Raihan pointed out. "Duraludon, Max Knuckle!"

"This is text-based fiction! The readers are never going to see that picture!" Skye yelled.

"I don't know who these readers are, but that's their fault for not following me," Raihan shrugged, unsympathetic.

". . Fine, whatever. Let's wrap this up! Necrozma?" Skye fished a dark blue crystal out of her pocket. "You Galarians think size is everything? It's not! It's about power!" With a flourish, she placed the Dragonium-Z in her Z-Power Ring and strike a pose, commanding, "Necrozma! Use Devastating Drake!"

A flash of energy shot from her body to Necrozma's, and the golden dragon roared, beating its four wings and launching a screeching blue projectile with wings that flew downwards, through the crack in Flapple's neck and shell, and wrought havoc on its unprotected insides.

There was a shriek. An explosion of power shot out from Flapple's core, and it collapsed backwards, its tail falling limp.

"You want that thing caught? You won't get a better chance!" Raihan warmed her, and Skye nodded, producing an Ultra Ball.

"Hold on. Regular balls aren't enough for Dynamax Pokémon," Raihan held up his wrist, and energy flowed from his Dynamax Band to the Ultra Ball, causing it to glow and expand to a ridiculous size. Skye nodded her gratitude, scooping up the massive ball with both hands, and throwing it headlong towards Flapple.

The Dynamaxed ball hung in mid-air, swinging open and sucking up the huge apple dragon, who vanished into the containment receptacle. The big ball fell to the ground so hard that it left a crater, shaking and twisting, before finally settling and clicking, shrinking back into a normal Ultra Ball.

"Ba dada dam dem dum, ba dada ba dada daa," Skye triumphantly hummed the capture music as she skipped over and picked up the ball. "I caught Flapple!"

"Congratulations," Raihan nodded approvingly. "Victory selfie!"

"I told you before, this is text the readers can't see the pictures!" Skye complained as Raihan's Rotom Phone took a picture of her and Necrozma with the Ultra Ball.

(That didn't stop her from later printing out and framing both of the pictures Raihan took during the battle to hang in the Ultra Rescue Initiative's base, though.)

"We'll have to have that battle another day, Duraludon and Necrozma don't look like they're in fighting form. But I'll look forward to seeing you, so come challenge Hammerlocke any time," Raihan assured Skye.

Skye blinked. Her idol had given her an open invitation to come and challenge him whenever she wanted. "You bet I will!" she grinned. "And I won't just use any of my Pokémon, I'm gonna train up Flapple so that next time he fights your Duraludon, he comes out on top!"

Raihan just grinned. "I'll look forward to it!"


	4. Dimension CSUB

Dimension CS+UB

"Afternoon, Kris," Elio greeted his new teammate as she emerged from her bedroom into the large retrofitted hangar that was serving as the Ultra Rescue Initiative's headquarters.

The rooms in question were set up almost like a motel, with communal rooms like the rec room and kitchen on the bottom, and staircases and balconies leading to the private bedrooms stacked on top of them like building blocks. As things had turned out, Elio was directly adjacent to Kris, and the afternoon sun shone into the hangar, making it the perfect time and lighting for him to groom his starter Pokémon.

"Who's this?" Kris asked, taking in the white-and-blue mermaid. Primarina flicked her tail and mane proudly, letting the light play off them. Elio smiled affectionately. "This is Primarina. She's my starter," he explained.

". . oh," Kris suddenly looked haggard, in a way that couldn't be a result of simple jet lag. She didn't talk much about her life before joining the Ultra Rescue Initiative, but when Elio first met her, she had been wearing a whole belt of Pokéballs . . but Suicune was the only Pokémon she had with her. It didn't take a genius to surmise that she had lost a lot of friends in the collapse of her dimension.

Elio's jaw set. "You need to catch a new Pokémon," he declared.

Kris' face froze. "Huh?"

"Look, I know you're upset about losing your old team. I can't imagine how that feels. But you need to get your mind off it, and the best way to do that is to try something new - more to the point, to train something new. Besides, in our line of work, Suicune isn't going to be enough as your only Pokémon anyway. She's tough, but even a Legendary is only so strong, especially when we go up against other Legendaries,"

Kris mumbled something that was too indistinct to hear. "What?"

"I said I'm not ready!" she snapped, looking haunted. "What if I train a new Pokémon, and lose them again? I . . I just . . I couldn't take that,"

Elio could only shake his head. "Maybe," he mustered after a moment. "But this is a new world for you, a whole new life. You can't let it be defined by what you've lost or you'll never get anywhere,"

The former Champion of an alternate universe's Johto mulled this over, and something changed in her eyes. "Alright, let's try it. What do you have in mind?"

"Sorry, girl, we'll have to finish this later," Elio told Primarina, who trilled in understanding as he returned her to her Pokéball. "I think the best way for you to move forward is to set you up with a Pokémon neither you nor anyone have ever seen or heard of before, a Pokémon from another dimension that's so different to ours that it's not even recognisable. We have a special name for Pokémon like that; we call them Ultra Beasts,"

"You want me to train an alien?" Her eyes lit up with determination. "Bring it on,"

"Me, Skye and the Ultra Recon Squad have already mapped a few dimensions that Ultra Beasts are native to. Come on, me and Lunala will take you to one,"

X

With a screech, Lunala emerged from a portal into a world of gloomy twilight. Kris gasped as she took in the scenery; around her, as far as the eye could see, were freakish alien plants; all with glowing white star-like cores supported by five black stalks that fed into the ground, which was covered with vines that flashed with electricity.

"Welcome to the Ultra Plant, home to a species of Ultra Beast called Xurkitree," Elio explained as Lunala landed before a large building. "We built an outpost here because the Xurkitree generate tons of electrical power and it all goes to waste. The facility here harnesses that power and sends it to outposts in other dimensions, and back to our universe,"

"Awesome," Kris breathed. "So, these are all Pokémon? But some of them are huge," She gestured at one particularly notable specimen that towered over the building as she and Elio dismounted.

"Yep. They start off small but get massive. Over here, this one looks about the right size for a trainer," Kris followed the more experienced dimension hopper to a Xurkitree that was waving about. As she approached, the Ultra Beast uprooted three of its five legs and waved them inquisitively in her direction, as though they were arms. "Can it see me?"

"Who knows? They obviously have sapience, though. See if it likes you?"

"Hey, little guy," Kris held out a hand to the alien. "You wanna come with. Me? Learn to fight and help people?"

The glowing cluster that was the creature's head peered at her inquisitively, before reaching out a tentacle to take her hand - and blasting her with several joules of electricity. Kris flew backwards, blackened and singed. ". . . Next!"

X

Lunala emerged into another dimension of Ultra Beasts. "Oh, I know this place!" Elio grinned. "Welcome to the Ultra Desert! The Ultra Beasts that live here are called Pheromosa, they're really smart and know how to build houses. This was the first dimension we set up an outpost in, and the settlers have been getting along great with the Pheromosa," he explained as a Lunala landed in a primitive-looking settlement in the desert with a few advanced buildings but mostly basic mud/stone constructions. Sure enough, there were a mixture of humans, recognisable Pokémon, and tall, bug-like humanoids with long veils like hair flowing down from their squashed heads.

"Hey, Governor!" Elio addressed an aged human who seemed surprised to see him. "Oh, hello, Elio. What brings you here?"

"This is Kris, she's a new recruit of the Initiative. We're hoping she can add a Pheromosa to her team. Are there any that would be interested?"

"Probably, some of the younger ones do get excited about adventure," he mused. "Give me ten minutes,"

It wasn't long before Kris was presented with a trio of tall bugs who regarded her, seeming unimpressed. "These three want to see what it's like being trained properly for combat. Take your pick,"

"Um, hi," the greenette offered the three aliens, stepping forward. "I'm Kris, and -" As she stepped forwards, her foot hit the desert awkwardly and kicked up a miniscule spray of sand, a few grains of which landed on the lead Pheromosa's foot.

The Ultra Beast shrieked, interrupting his prospective trainer, and glared at her with murder in his eyes, punching her with a furious blow that send her flying backwards, before daintily brushing the sand off his foot and stalking off. The other two gave her unimpressed looks, before following their compatriot.

"Um, possibly should have mentioned this before, but Pheromosa as a rule are massive neat freaks. They can't stand even the tiniest bit of dirt," Elio apologetically explained.

Kris grumbled, rubbing her aching chest. "Could have mentioned before . . next,"

X

Lunala emerged from another Ultra Wormhole, and the two Trainers looked around, finding themselves in a world of floating chunks of black crystal, with inhospitable cliffs and gullies leaving very few places to stand. "Lunala? Why are we in the Ultra Deep Sea?"

Kris frowned. There was a noise . . like someone singing. "Do you hear that?" she asked. The music . . it was resonating in her.

"Lunala, this is a bad place to be," Elio warned. "I heard about this place from that girl from the Earth that flooded because of Kyogre, Selene. The Lusamine from her dimension vanished here, got killed by the Ultra Beasts inhabiting this dimension. We need to go . . Kris?" He blinked, and immediately started to panic. "KRIS?!" But to no avail; Kris was gone from the back of Lunala.

Kris was floating. Or maybe she was falling, that would explain why everything around her was going up so quickly. But it didn't matter, she was totally at ease because she could hear the singing inside her head.

But then she hit something, a soft shape that ballooned outwards and easily caught her. Tentacles snaked upwards and steadied her, and as they touched her the singing grew louder. She sighed in pleasure, finding her saviour to be a graceful creature akin to a jellyfish, but also reminiscent of a large hat with hair-like tentacles hanging from its head.

"Oh, hello there. What's your name?" she smiled at the Ultra Beast, who seemed overjoyed at her friendliness. The singing intensified, and somehow, Kris understood it, hearing a name that could not be put into words, but that she understood totally - or maybe not at all, but that somehow made it all the more beautiful.

It was tempting to drift off, to settle down and go to sleep, but Kris was dimly aware that she had come here for a reason. "Hey. I'm looking for an Ultra Beast to join my team of Pokémon and help me save people. Would you like to come home with me?" In response, the creature trilled an accepting trill, and Kris smiled, stroking the beast's balloon-like head. "That's great. I'm sure we're going to be very good friends,"

Some time later, the trainer became aware of someone shouting at her. "Kris! Oh thank goodness," Elio, still riding on Lunala, shouted at her. "Okay, now stay very still," he cautioned her. "That Nihilego's got you, but Lunala can knock it out and we'll get out of here before any more of them show up,"

"What? No!" Kris protested, rubbing her new friend's head. "This is my head friend! I'm going to train it, and love it, and we'll get along so well!"

This was not a response that Elio had been expecting. "You . . what?"

"Aren't you listening? Nihilego's going to be my Pokémon from now on. Isn't that right?" Kris declared, stroking the Ultra Beast, who sang in agreement.

"Um . . uh . . are you sure? Because I've heard some bad things about those Pokémon, and I've never seen one before myself but I'm really not sure it's safe to be around,"

"But it's so pretty, and so sweet," Kris retorted. "You said we were going to get me a new Pokémon. This is my new Pokémon," she declared.

Elio was clearly unhappy, but nodded. "If you're sure," He produced a strange-looking Pokeball, blue with four golden rims and a net-like design. "This is a Beast Ball, a special kind of Pokeball specifically designed for Ultra Beasts. Jump back over to Lunala and I'll catch it for you,"

Nihilego's seemed to understand, drifting closer, and Kris easily jumped the distance, before snatching the ball away from Elio. "My Pokémon, my catch," she brusquely informed him, holding the Beast Ball up to Nihilego. The crystalline jellyfish touched it with a tentacle, and there was a flash of red light as the capture registered. With a smile, Kris clipped the Beast Ball onto her belt.

"Well . . we got what we came for, I guess. Let's head home. But we should run you training Nihilego by President Lusamine and Skye before it's official,"

Kris just smiled. She wasn't sure why, but that singing, and Nihilego's touch, it made her feel content in a way she hadn't since before her dimension was destroyed.

She and Nihilego were surely going to become very good friends.


	5. Dimension UMOP

Dimension UM=OP

Skye didn't like admitting to people that yes, she actually did need to take the time to train with her Pokémon sometimes.

That was why she, Necrozma, Flygon, Kommo-o and Altaria were in an open plain of grey sand, under a sunless, starless sky, in a far-flung dimension that the Dragon-Type specialist had taken to using as her personal, private training grounds.

"Altaria, you're new. Show me what you can do," Skye instructed, and the golden cloud dragon nodded, bursting into a musical song of ferocious intensity that blasted away the grains underfoot.

"Okay, that was Round. Great! But probably not useful because we don't have anyone else who can learn Round," Skye nodded. "Anything more . . flashy?"

Altaria launched a stream of Dragon Breath, spinning in a circle, and the resulting haze hid her from view. "Not bad," Skye nodded, before squinting. "Wait, are you doing a Dragon Dance in there?"

Her answer came when a significantly more powerful Dragon Breath was narrowly dodged.

Altaria finished her manoeuvre, and gave Skye a self-satisfied side-eye for all of two seconds before a Photon Geyser hammered her into the ground.

Skye completely approved of Necrozma's retribution. "Altaria! Rule number one of being a trained Pokémon is don't attack your Trainer! That's - that's not even rule number one, it's rule number zero! It's rule number zero point one!" The recovering dragoness quailed under Skye's angry glare, and also under the fury of the much larger and much more golden dragon backing her up.

Skye held up a hand to forestall Necrozma's wrath. "I think she's learned her lesson," She knelt, making eye contact with the Shiny. "Now, I get it, you're a diva with an overinflated ego. That's cute, it's good that you have personality and individuality. But if this thing, you being part of my team, is going to work, we need to establish some ground rules, okay?"

Altaria nodded, bowing her head in submission.

"Good. Now, I did want to practice Z-Moves, but I don't think we're there yet," Skye sighed to herself. "Kommo-o, how's your Clanging Scales coming along?"

Kommo-o looked awkward, a remarkable feat for the dragon. "No dice?" Skye asked. "We'll head back to Vast Poni Canyon, maybe your father can help. How about you, Flygon? Any progress figuring out Superpower?"

Flygon shot her a sceptical look, and Skye groaned. "Look. Bulbapedia says you can learn Superpower. We went to Mount Lanakila, I phonied up a Heart Scale for that damn Reminder harpie. The only thing holding you back is your own lack of faith in yourself," Flygon reluctantly nodded. "Keep trying. You'll get it," Skye assured him. The dragon obediently trudged off to practise.

With that done, Skye turned to Necrozma. Her partner. She eyed him with a look of trepidation. "Necrozma . . . You know there's only one thing we need to practise,"

Necrozma met her gaze evenly.

Unbidden, a question popped into her mind; _was it worth it?_

Skye sighed. "We've been lucky so far. We've been able to fight off everything that's come against us, just you and me. But a day might come when that's not enough, and we need . . what do they call it? A nuclear option?"

Necrozma didn't react noticeably, but his gaze projected concern.

"And, well, it doesn't get much more nuclear than this," Skye produced a glittering golden crystal, a prism with two extra knobs on the ends that was marked with a black star shape. In all the dimensions they'd travelled to, no one else had ever seen anything like the object that Skye called Ultranecrozium-Z.

"Come on. We need to practise it," Skye encouraged, and Necrozma slowly, reluctantly, nodded, turning and facing away from his Trainer and teammates.

Bracing herself, Skye slotted the Z-Crystal into her Z-Power Ring and focused. She struck a pose, placing her fingers on her forehead before extending her right arm outwards. "Use Light That Burns The Sky,"

Energy, aura, life force, whatever you wanted to call it, flowed out of Skye's body and down her arm at a prodigious, unsustainable rate, transforming into golden power that infused Necrozma's body. Black spots danced in the Trainer's vision and her heart pounded, gritting her teeth and pushing the energy that the Z-Move demanded out of her body and into her partner. Her arm twitched, before falling limp, and her legs quickly followed. Skye collapsed to the ground, fighting to the last to stay conscious, and everything went white, before everything went black.

X

"Skye? Skye, wake up! Stay with us!"

"C'mon, you're a terrible boss but we can't lose you!"

Skye moaned, blearily opening her eyes and staring up at a white ceiling. Lillie and Elio were leaning over her, both looking sick with worry.

"Whuh?"

She probably should have expected it when Elio hugged her. "What the hell were you doing?!"

Lillie also hugged her. "I was so worried! Necrozma came out of a wormhole carrying you, and you were unconscious and your vitals were flatlining and we thought you were going to die!"

"Yeah, right, like I'd get killed off, I'm too interesting," the team leader weakly scoffed.

"Shut up," Elio instructed.

Skye finally registered that she was in a hospital. "I guess training didn't work out,"

"Training? What the hell were you doing?" the dark-haired Alolan demanded.

Skye poked him in the chest. "Z-Moves. And you, my man, have no room to judge. Lana told me what happened when you tried to use Hydro Vortex the first time," A playful smile played over her face. "Did they ever completely dry out Paniola Town?"

"You should still be careful!" Lillie, ever the mother hen, protested.

In response, her commanding officer fixed her with a dull look. "Gee. That never occurred to me. That maybe, when trying to get the hang of using one of the strongest moves in the game, I should be careful," Every word dropped with sarcasm.

Lillie blushed.

"Well, if you were more careful, you wouldn't have come home on the brink of death," Elio protested, coming to his totally-not-girlfriend's defence.

"Trust me, I took every precaution," Skye assured them. "The fact that I still ended up like this," She breathed, renewing her determination. "Just proves how much stronger we still have to get,"


	6. Dimension CS-NM

Dimension CS-NM

Darkness was swallowing everything.

The sun vanished, extinguished by the nothingness.

Aether Paradise was carved up by black cracks in reality, vanishing piece by piece until all that was left was a void.

Elio ran, but he was swallowed by the blackness.

Soliera tried to escape with a boat, but the ocean fell away under her and she drowned in nothing.

Skye and Necrozma fought it, beating back the absence of reality with a wave of Photon Geysers, but a massive purple hand reached out of the void, wrapped around them both, and pulled them in.

Kris was the only one left, and she couldn't escape. She had evaded the void once, it was inevitable that it would come back for her. All she could think about was how helpless she felt as it came closer, and closer, and closer . .

X

Kris sat bolt upright in bed.

Heaving, ragged breaths wheezed through her lungs, and uncontrollable shivers wracked her body. It was so . . so . . words couldn't describe the agony, the terror she was feeling.

She needed . . well, she wasn't even sure what she needed. She paused, trying to slow her breathing, get out of her own head. There was something missing, something she had to listen to, something she could hear that would make her feel better. What was it?

It wasn't the TV from the floor below, that was for sure. Skye must have fallen asleep in the rec room, that was the only reason she could think of that there was someone talking about a significant rise in the global population of Eon Pokémon thanks to the efforts of the Ultra Rescue Initiative bringing lots of them from other dimensions.

An echo crossed her mind; music, singing, a haunting memory of melody that she had heard . . that she had heard when she caught Nihilego.

She tripped the Beast Ball that was lying on her bedside table, and the alien jellyfish with its glass-like body appeared in a flash that briefly illuminated the room.

Immediately, the strange creature drifted towards her, running a consoling tentacle along her arm. At its touch, the song resonated in Kris' mind with newfound intensity, and she felt her worries drain away.

Nihilego floated over to her, draping its body over hers like a blanket and softly trilling. Gentle lights flickered in its head, like a nightlight that bathed the Trainer in a warm, consoling glow.

"Thanks, Nihilego. You're a good friend," Kris wasn't sure if the Ultra Beast understood, but it sang a song of love and comfort for her anyway. With the soft lights and gentle noise, the Trainer finally relaxed enough to be lulled to sleep.


	7. Dimension UMLL

Dimension UM+LL

"Hey, Skye?"

The team leader, who had been taking a nap on the couch, fixed Elio with a dull, bleary glare. "This had better be important,"

"Depends on how you define it, but I'd say it is. You're going to want to see this,"

Reluctantly, the Dragon Specialist heaved herself out of her seat and left the rec room, emerging into the larger open space of the Ultra Rescue Initiative's converged hangar. Her eyes immediately fixed on an unfamiliar teenager, with pale purple hair, baggy, light blue clothes, and a sash to which a pair of Pokéballs were attached. He brightened, seeming to recognise Skye but not saying anything.

"Who's this?"

"He hasn't said anything, but he gave me this," Elio passed her a note with handwriting in an untidy scrawl, and Skye scrutinised it.

_Hello my name is Atlas. I'm here to join the Ultra Rescue Initiative. I am mute sorry but I can write and I have Psychic-Types. Please give me a chance._

"Atlas, huh?" She eyed him. Something didn't seem quite right about this boy to her. "What makes you think you're good enough to join us? We've got quite the lineup here, the Champion of Alola, former Champion of Johto, daughter of the Aether Foundation's President, the highest ranked recruit of the Ultra Recon Squad . . what have you got?"

Elio quietly noted that she didn't reference herself. When you thought about it, in some ways skye was the least impressive member of the group.

In response, Atlas tossed one of the Pokéballs attached to his belt and released a Pokémon that Skye had honestly never expected to see in her life; a squat, purple phantom with two horns, from each of which a ring dangled like a massive earring, and a torso that faded into a wispy tail. "Is that . . a Hoopa?" she exclaimed in disbelief.

Hoopa chuckled, and suddenly a voice was in Skye's head. _Nice to meet ya! Hey, I never got the chance to say thanks!_

"You could have mentioned that your Psychic-Type was a Mythical," Elio spluttered.

"Thanks? For what?" Skye questioned, and suddenly a stream of images entered her head. _A world on the brink of collapsing into a void. A massive portal leading to safety, and Aether Paradise stuffed to the brim with Pokémon. A ring-shaped portal opening on deck and Hoopa emerging, just in time to be carried to safety while a huge golden dragon fought off the insane Palkia that was destroying the world. _

"Oh . . you're not this dimension's Hoopa, you're from Kris' dimension," she understood, and Hoopa nodded. _Atlas is too, _he telepathed. _We ended up together in the chaos and decided ta stick with each other. And if stuff like that's happening in other worlds, we both want ta help out._

"I see," Skye nodded. Overcoming her surprise, she frowned to herself. It was impressive that this newcomer was Hoopa's trainer, but Hoopa was a Mythical Pokémon, not a Legendary. (Even if the difference in terminology was mostly academic and she only knew because she'd read through the list of Mythicals three times to triple-check that there weren't any Dragon-Type Mythicals.) Mythicals tended to be not as strong as Legendaries. "That's impressive, but I still need to make sure you can handle yourself. Let's have a Pokémon battle, one on one. Perform well enough and I'll let you join the Ultra Rescue Initiative. Deal?"

Atlas nodded, and Hoopa grinned.

Skye chuckled. "I'll even let you have type advantage. Kommo-o, you in?" she released her Fighting-Type Dragon, who roared assent, staring menacingly down at the Psychic/Ghost-Type, who was sufficiently small that Kommo-o could probably step on him.

Hoopa immediately tossed a Hyperspace Hole outwards and jumped into it, vanishing.

Kommo-o looked around in confusion, then a portal opened behind him and Hoopa punched him with all his might, before quickly vanishing. Kommo-o was briefly dazed, but tried to retaliate - and missed.

Skye drooped as the process repeated. "I may not have thought this through," she admitted as her pseudo-Legendary was whittled down.

It took five Hyperspace Holes, but Kommo-o finally hit the ground, having not landed a single hit on Hoopa during the entire fight. _Consider that a lesson in what ta expect from a Mythical,_ Hoopa smugly informed Skye.

The team leader sighed. "Alright, I deserve that,"

Unable to repress a smile, Atlas handed his new commanding officer a pre-prepared note that read; _So where do we sleep?_

Skye read it twice.

"You did say that if they beat you they could join the team," Elio reminded her.

"Yeah but . ." She groaned. "Alright, fine. If you're sure you can handle it, then welcome to the club. Now, every second I stand here is a second I'm not catching up on the new Pokémon anime, so just pick an empty room and get comfortable," With that, she returned Kommo-o and stalked off.

"Doesn't Kommo-o need healing?" Elio suggested, and his leader stopped dead. "Great, now I have to go all the way down to the ground floor and hit up the infirmary. Thanks, Elio," she grumbled, making for the elevator.

Elio snorted, before grinning at Atlas. "Stick with me, I'll get you settled in. It'll be nice to have another boy on the team. The gender ratio in this story has been ridiculously skewed," He reached to wrap an arm around the new recruit's shoulders, but Atlas flinched away. Hoopa sent him a telepathic warning. _He doesn't like being touched._

"Ah. Noted. Well, follow me," Elio declared, gesturing to the stairs.

X

"Oh, my. What happened to him?" Aether Paradise's resident Joy asked, looking over the bruised Kommo-o.

"He got punched by a ghost. A lot," Skye summarised.

"Punched by a . . that sounds oxymoronic," the healer pointed out.

"Plenty of people have already told me that it was stupid, I don't need you to join them," she grouched in response.

X

Once Elio had left and Atlas was settling in, Hoopa fixed Atlas with a look. _So you're sure you don't want to tell them?_

Atlas returned his gaze levelly for a moment, and shook his head.

_It ain't the sort of thing ya can hide forever._

Atlas silently sighed. _Maybe not, _he 'pathed back. _But I'm not here because I want them to be my friends. Hopefully, by the time they find out, she'll be back with us. After that, well, come what may at least we'll be together._

_Maybe. _

Atlas nodded. _Maybe._


	8. Dimension CSST

**Dimension CS+ST**

In the hangar that was the Ultra Rescue Initiative Squadron A (the existence of Squadrons B through Z pending) Skye was getting ready to go out to buy lunch. "I'm gonna go hit up that malasada place in Hau'oli, anyone want me to bring them back anything?" she called out to the rest of Squadron A.

"You mean the one not-so-secretly run by Team Rocket? I'll pass, I don't trust criminal cooking," Elio retorted.

Kris suddenly exploded out of the toilet. "There's a mala-whatever . . place being run by Team Rocket?!"

"Yep," Skye confirmed.

"And you don't think we should do anything about that?!"

"I plan on giving them money in exchange for fried bread on a regular basis," Skye clarified. "If you don't like malasadas, there's plenty of other places to get food in Alola,"

"But -" Kris spluttered. "Team Rocket! Evil!" she finally burst out.

"Also incompetent. These ones, anyway. Trust me, they're no threat," Skye assured her teammate. "Now, I'm hungry. Altaria, I need a lift," she tapped a Pokéball on her belt, and it flicked open with a flash of gold light.

Kris was dumbfounded. "Skye?"

The bluenette paused. "What?"

"You have a Shiny Altaria,"

Skye looked down at the golden cloud dragon she was straddling as though this was news to her. "Huh. You're right. I hadn't noticed," she sarcastically responded. "What's your point?"

"My point is you are ridiculous!" the former Champion declared. "Your partner is a Legendary - not just a Legendary, but one of the most powerful Legendaries in the world!"

"Mega Rayquaza and Arceus might disagree," Skye quietly pointed out, taking a second to consider how incredible it would be to have a Mega Rayquaza on her team. She could dream . .

"You carry around incredibly valuable Z-Crystals in your back pocket, all of which you can apparently use with no difficulty whatsoever,"

"Hey, I only have three, and I earned those. You wanna accuse anyone of hoarding Z-Crystals look at Elio first, he has basically all of them," the Dragon specialist responded. "Besides, were you not here when trying to use one put me in the hospital?"

"Last week you took a day trip to Galar and came back with a powerful new recruit who can turn into an apple-flavoured siege tower just because,"

"There's already two whole video games explaining how anyone can Dynamax under the right circumstances and apparently they're getting DLC. You just don't pay attention," Skye countered. "Do you want a Pokémon that can Gigantamax? We'll go to Galar and catch you a Pokémon that can Gigantamax, would that make you feel better?"

"That's not the point! And now you just have an insanely rare Shiny Pokémon for no reason at all? That's it, I'm calling bullshit!" Kris seemed like she was done listing.

"Altaria isn't rare, not at all," Skye replied. "There are dimensions where normal colours and Shiny colours are switched for some or all Pokémon. One of the first dimensions me and Necrozma visited was like that, and by the time I figured out gold was common and blue was rare over there I'd already caught Altaria. Releasing her just because of a little thing like that seemed, well, petty," she clarified.

Kris blinked. ". . oh,"

"Yeah. Sure, I have Necrozma and he's great, and the Flapple thing was a bit of a fluke, but Altaria, Flygon and Kommo-o are all pretty normal," Altaria huffed, and Skye was quick to reassure her. "Oh, but I mean that your colours aren't what makes you special, you're special for you," This seemed to mollify the Dragon. "Granted, the superpowered Totem Kommo-o that lives in my old digs in Vast Poni Canyon is pretty special, but I haven't caught him and don't plan to, so he doesn't count,"

Something struck Kris as odd about that statement. ". . You only have five Pokémon? Not even a full team?"

"I'm still looking for one more Dragon," her leader confirmed. "I actually haven't been doing this for long, you know. Flygon's the only one I even raised, the rest I caught already fully evolved,"

"Oh," Kris felt somewhat silly now. "Right,"

"But I certainly am in the market for an Altarianite - a Stone that lets Altaria Mega-Evolve. That would really be something special," Skye nodded to herself.

"Hey, can we visit this all-Shiny dimension sometime? It sounds like a good place to look for recruits," Kris suggested.

"Sure. But first I have malasadas to buy. Back soon!"

X

Necrozma blew through an Ultra Wormhole at light speed, Skye and Kris clinging to his back. As they emerged back into a reality, the blue sky dazzled them. From below, the shining dragon would have seemed like a second sun had appeared in the sky.

"Alright, welcome to Shinytown. Three thousand, four hundred and something light years away. Any Pokémon in particular you want to pick up?" Skye asked.

"You seem unenthused," Kris observed.

"Well, I can't catch another Pokémon here. If I do Altaria will get pissy. This is for you," Skye pointed out. "Also, my show's on at four, so let's try to be back by then,"

"Got it," Kris nodded. It had been a month since the loss of her old team, and it still hurt to think about them . . so not a Pokémon that she had trained before. A thought occurred to her. "Do we know all the Pokemon that can Gigantamax?" she idly asked.

Skye shrugged. "It's not quite that simple. Only certain individuals of a species can Gigantamax, so for all we know literally every species of Pokémon can and we just haven't found individuals capable of it yet,"

"Oh. So even if I did go catch my own Flapple or something, it wouldn't necessarily be able to Gigantimax," Kris mused, sounding disappointed. "That's a shame,"

"Y'now, if a Pokémon with a powered-up state is what you're looking for, you could get a Darmanitan or something. Or a Pokémon that can Mega-Evolve," Skye off-handedly suggested. "There'll be a list in your Pokédex,"

The former Johto Champion nodded, opening her pocket computer. "Okay . . hmm . . how about . . a Treecko?"

"Yeah? Alright. To this dimension's Professor Birch's!" Skye commanded Necrozma, who nodded assent and took off.

"Huh? We're not catching one in the wild?"

"Why would we? Birch gives Treecko out as starters to beginning Trainers. We can just ask him for one. Though, knowing our hack of an author, something's gonna happen that'll make things unnecessarily complicated," Skye groused.

"Uh . . I'll be ready to send out Suicune, then," Kris decided was the only reasonable response.

X

"Okay, this is . . not what I was expecting," Skye offered.

They were floating over the dimension's version of Littleroot Town . . except, well, it wasn't.

Instead, there was a crater.

"Uh . ." Skye seemed at a loss for words.

"What the hell?" Kris questioned.

"I, uh, don't know," the Dragon specialist replied. "This is . . new,"

Necrozma growled, and Skye rubbed his neck. "What's wrong, boy?"

A low, defensive growl this time, and a familiar tenseness in his muscles. Like he was preparing for a fight. "Is there another powerful Dragon around here?" Skye frowned, looking around in concern. "Rayquaza is supposed to hang out in Hoenn. I'm sure you could take some silly little Rayquaza,"

Necrozma shook his head.

"Not Rayquaza? Huh . . land, and we'll see if we can -" The Psychic Dragon abruptly thrashed and lifted higher, seeming reluctant to land. "Okay . . I guess we'll have to find a Treecko somewhere else," Skye observed.

"Anything that puts Necrozma on edge is something I want to be nowhere near, thanks," Kris put forward.

"Ahem, we're _heroes_. If something's going on, it's our job to help out," Skye retorted. "Necrozma, what's going on?"

Necrozma shrugged.

"You're Psychic. Talk to me," Skye groaned. "Where's Hoopa when you need him . ."

With a growl, Necrozma lashed his tail and manifested an Ultra Warp Hole. "I think he's saying it's time to go," Kris pointed out.

"Necrozma, if this dimension is in danger then . ." Skye treadles off as her partner shook his head again. "It isn't? You're sure? Alright . . still, I don't like this,"

Necrozma, though, didn't seem to care what she liked, as he plunged into the Ultra Warp Hole, carrying his passengers with him and leaving the Littleroot crater behind.

X

"Hey, Professor Birch!" Having arrived in another dimension's Littleroot, one that was intact, Skye forged ahead into the Pokémon Laboratory.

"Uh, hello there," the portly Professor raised his eyebrows. "Do I know you?"

"No, but you're sorta famous. Okay, here's the thing, my friend outside was in . . well, a tragedy recently and lost most of her Pokémon. We've finally convinced her to start training new Pokémon, because we kind of need them in our line of work, and she's decided she wants a Treecko. So please tell me that you have one ready for adoption," Skye summarised.

"Oh, um . . yes, yes of course. Just give me a minute," Birch nodded.

"Kris, he okayed it! Come on in!" Skye yelled.

X

"It still bugs me," Kris admitted to Skye as she stroked her new, baby blue Shiny-but-not-really Treecko, who was lying in her lap and looking at her with devotion.

"Dimension OR-MC missing its Littleroot Town? I know what you mean," Skye agreed. "Freak meteor, maybe? No, Rayquaza would have stopped it . . the weird part is that the destruction was so localised. If it was something like a nuclear meltdown or a natural disaster there'd be traces of it for miles around, but everything was fine except for Littleroot. The only thing I can think of is that a Legendary or something might have destroyed it,"

"That would explain Necrozma's reaction, especially if it were a Legendary Dragon," Kris nodded.

"Thing is, it doesn't fit the profile of any of the known Legendary Dragons. Rayquaza and Zygarde are protectors, and the Tao Trio live a hell of a long way away from Hoenn . . unless things are different in that dimension . ." the bluenette frowned.

"Can we rule out that world's Creation Dragons?" Kris checked.

"Probably not," Skye sighed. "And . . why Littleroot, specifically? We just don't know enough,"

Her teammate shrugged. "We should keep an eye on that dimension. See if anything else happens that'd mean they need our help,"

"Good idea. I'll add it to the watch list," Skye agreed.

"We have a watch list?"

"We do now!"


	9. Dimension W2UM

Dimension W2+UM

"So, how do these things normally go?" Kris asked. She and Elio were riding Lunala, with Skye and Soliera on Necrozma. Back at the base, Lillie was monitoring the situation and marshalling everyone to prepare for interdimensional refugees. Atlas was using Hoopa's Hyperspace Hole to travel to this dimension, so they were planning to rendezvous on arrival.

"Something's destroying the world, we can't stop it, we open portals and get as many people and Pokémon back to our world as we can, then we bail before shit hits the fan," Skye summarised.

"That's the plan?" Kris questioned in disbelief.

"We don't know what we're going up against, just that Absol picked up signs of danger coming from this dimension. We'll make a more concrete plan when we're through the Warp Hole and know what we're up against," Elio assured her.

"Well, good," Kris nodded, and then everything went white.

X

The Ultra Rescue Initiative Squadron A emerged into the new reality, and immediately felt a chill in the air. Looking down, the reason was obvious.

The entire world beneath them was blanketed in ice.

Elio pulled out his Rotom Dex. "Rotom? Scan the topography, does this Earth mirror ours? If so, where are we?"

The floating Pokédex buzzed, hovering in mid-air and looking down at the world below. "Bzzrt! Topological scan complete! I'm not fully certain, the ice is interfering, but with a 10% margin of error I can say that this is the Unova region!"

Necrozma drifted closer. "Did you just say we're in this dimension's Unova?" Skye called.

"That's right! Bzzzt!"

"Then I have a theory. There's a Dragon and Ice Type Legendary native to Unova called Kyurem. He must be the source of all this-sa-a-achoo!" Skye was interrupted by a sudden sneeze. "Why does it have to be ice?" she complained.

"Do you not like the cold?" Kris sympathetically asked.

"It's not just that I don't like it. Dragon-Types are weak to Ice! This entire mission is gonna be a nightmare!" Skye yelled.

"Don't worry, we'll take point on this one. Ice types are weak to Water, and I've got that in Suicune," Kris assured her. Her commander somehow didn't seem assured.

Elio patted Primarina's Pokéball. ". . So do I. If it's an Ice and Dragon Type, you can't ask for better than a Water and Fairy Type," he huffed.

Soliera interjected for the first time; "Except maybe a Fairy and Rock or Fairy and Fighting," She returned Skye's withering glare. "What? The type chart isn't hard to memorise,"

"There aren't any Pokémon with that Type combination . ." Skye paused. "Right?" she asked Rotom.

The possessed Pokédex looked unimpressed. "Actually, there's Carbink and Diancie,"

Skye just sulked. "Yeah, because a Carbink would be so helpful. And we don't have a Diancie with us, do we?"

"No, we do not," The sarcasm went over Rotom's head. "Also, before we get any more sidetracked, I'm picking up a large structure. It appears to be some kind of castle!" Rotom corrected the flow of conversation.

Skye groaned. "Let me guess. Is it made of ice?"

"No, it appears to be stone," Rotom waited just long enough for the leader to breathe a sigh of relief, before adding, "Mostly covered in ice,"

The barb wasn't worth responding to. "Alright, Kris, Elio, Soliera, hit the ground. It looks like just about everyone on the planet is on ice, but if there's survivors, round them up. I'm gonna investigate this castle,"

"Were you not listening when I told you Primarina is the best option?" Elio retorted.

"Dragon Type will cancel out Kyurem's Water weakness. Also, the type chart isn't everything. If we're going up against a Legendary Dragon, I think we'll have a better chance if we're also using a Legendary Dragon," Skye pointed out.

"Your entire team is weak to ice," Soliera pointed out. "Flygon and Flapple in particular,"

"That only matters if we get hit," Skye perfunctorily responded as Necrozma landed. She unceremoniously pushed Soliera to the ground, and Necrozma took off again. "Besides, you can't come. Lunala's the only one able to open an Ultra Wormhole, she needs to help with evacuation. Okay going to the castle now bye!"

Elio groaned. "You just want to catch Kyurem, don't you?"

"It's a dragon that isn't weak to ice of course I want to catch it!"

Soliera just grumbled as Skye vanished into the snowstorm with that parting remark. "I get I'm the weakest, but she still could have been more polite,"

Elio looked around. "Hold on. Where's Atlas?"

X

The cause of the Ice Age encrusting this dimension's Unova was immediately obvious as Skye approached what she had no way of knowing was Dragonspiral Tower.

A massive draconic shape was on the very top of the tower, roaring and launching ice in every direction. It seemed to be demanding whether there was no one in the world who could challenge it.

As soon as it was clear, Necrozma roared back, and across the hailstorm, the two Dragons' eyes met.

"Whoa, buddy," Skye soothed her partner. "Let's not be hasty. Something about that Dragon looks different," She squinted. The white snow made it hard to pick out details, but Kyurem seemed taller than it had in the pictures she'd seen.

"And who might you be?" Skye stilled, hearing a voice calling down from the castle. Necrozma didn't need to be told, swooping down to find an aged man standing on the edge of the castle's battlements.

Skye frowned. This man, balding with pale hair, dressed in black robes, wielding a cane, was unnerving. "Name's Skye. I'm in charge of the Ultra Rescue Initiative. Who are you?"

The man casually walked backwards, unbothered by the snow and ice surrounding him. "Once, those I deemed worthy of it referred to me as Ghetsis. But now, they only call me king,"

The name rang a bell. "Ghetsis?" Skye's eyes narrowed. "Hey, you were part of that Rainbow Rocket fiasco, weren't you?"

The light of confusion in his eyes seemed genuine. "Ah . . I'm afraid I have no idea what you are talking about, young lady,"

Skye sighed, dismounting and planting her feet on the battlements. "Right, must be an alternate dimension counterpart then. Look, here's the rub. Me and Necrozma here, we're in charge of a group called the Ultra Rescue Initiative. We travel to worlds that are on the brink of destruction and save as many people as we can before it all goes to Distortion. Sometimes literally. I'm already fairly certain, but you are the one responsible for the planet being on ice, right?"

"I am indeed," Ghetsis chuckled morbidly. "Once, I dreamed of changing society, to make owning a Pokémon shameful and thus pave the way for my dominance. But now, I am the only one who commands the power of Pokémon, because mine will soon be the only one left! Across the globe, millions of Pokémon have already frozen to death, and it shan't be long until all the rest join them. And then with White Kyurem at -"

Skye was unimpressed. "Whatever!" she interrupted. "Jeez. Are you listening to yourself? You're monologuing!"

Ghetsis seemed displeased at being interrupted. "Well, it hardly matters. Soon your Pokémon, too, will succumb to the cold, and then you'll have no choice but to bend the knee to the king!"

"There is just no version of this conversation that doesn't end with me saying 'Necrozma, use Photon Geyser', is there?" Skye sighed. Necrozma, though, took this as a command, and immediately launched a beam of Psychic energy up at Kyurem.

Skye blinked, raising a finger. "Wait. What's a 'White' Kyurem, and how is it different from a regular Kyurem?"

Her answer came when Kyurem returned the shot with an Ice Burn, a powerful attack that knocked Necrozma backwards.

"White Kyurem is the fusion of Kyurem with Reshiram! It is the undeniable truth that I am king of this world!" Ghetsis roared.

Looking up, now that she was closer Skye could see that he was right. This Kyurem shared quite a lot of traits with Reshiram; white feathers on parts of its body, a large white drill mounted on its tail, mismatched horns, one of ice and one of wispy white feathers . . the frenzied expression on its face, though, was all Kyurem.

". . Oh," she mumbled.

Necrozma screeched, in pain rather than fury for once, and that snapped Skye out of her reverie. "I don't know if it's still Ice-Type, but assume that it is and try not to get hit!" she commanded. "I'll get you some backup!"

"Backup? You mean you aren't following the tradition of only one Pokémon at a time? Shameful!" the leader of Team Plasma snorted.

"I think the rulebook's frozen solid," Skye acerbically replied. "Besides, I bet the readers will want to see this,"

While it was normally the case that a Pokémon could only be Dynamaxed at a Power Spot in the Galar Region, at Skye's request the labs of Aether Paradise had begun experimenting with Galar Particles and the harvesting and containment thereof. It had been surprisingly easy to build what they called a Dynamax Battery. It was this innovation that allowed Skye to pluck a Pokéball off her waist and tap a new attachment to her spacesuit. "We've travelled across the multiverse, and we've seen a lot of things! But the one thing that I've never seen is something that can stand up to an angry Dragon! So Gigantamax, Flapple, and show him your rage!" The Dynamax Battery discharged into the Pokéball, making it swell and glow into a massive white shape. Unfortunately, the device could only be used once before needing to be recharged, but that was plenty.

Ghetsis watched in confusion as Skye lifted the huge Pokéball in both hands, before tossing it over the side of the castle's terrace. "Did you just throw away your Pokémon?"

Purple lightning crackled upwards and the sky split open, a stormy purple vortex washing away the clouds of snow. Necrozma roared triumphantly as the worst of the snowstorm evaporated, but a massive shape beneath swelled and crackled with power, growing larger and larger, supercharged by Galar Particles.

Ghetsis looked at the result in confusion. "Is that a giant apple?"

Before Skye could respond, a huge green head burst out of the apple and roared, sending a wave of sweet, sticky syrup washing over the castle. The man regarded his tarnished robes in disbelief. "What in Distortion is going on?"

"Galar has weird dragons," Skye off-handedly replied. "Flapple! Use G-Max Tartness, get Kyurem off balance! Necrozma, when you see an opening, use Prismatic Laser!"

"Kyurem, move!" Ghetsis instructed, but the dragon ignored him . . and that was its undoing. Massive apples rained down from the sky, having been lobbed upwards by Flapple. Unfortunately, Kyurem had taken the opportunity to throw a Blizzard at the massive Pokémon.

Skye paled, realising the mistake in her strategy. The time it would take for G-Max Tartness to hit was plenty of time for Kyurem to retaliate. With a quadruple weakness to ice, she'd been hoping that Flapple and Necrozma could overwhelm Kyurem quickly enough that he wouldn't even get off an attack.

And then a shining golden dragon interposed himself between the other Legendary and its target. Necrozma took the brunt of the Blizzard, groaning in pain but toughing it out - and then G-Max Tartness landed, apples raining down around Kyurem and battering it from every direction as they exploded with sweet, sticky syrup.

A perfectly aimed Prismatic Laser lanced in between disintegrating apples and knocked Kyurem sideways, sending it flying into the air. Necrozma shrieked in victory, looking dazed and his light dimming.

Kyurem's wings spread and it caught itself, flapping furiously. Its left wing, horn and tail lit up red, energy bursting outwards from its tail to keep it airborne. Skye grinned. White Kyurem might have Reshiram's wings, but it wasn't built to fly. Ghetsis drew breath, but Skye was faster. "Max Wyrmwind!" she instructed Flapple, who roared, and an upwards tornado infused with draconic energy shot upwards from the ground, battering at the Legendary.

Ghetsis spluttered. "This shouldn't be possible! Kyurem! Sheer Cold!" Seemingly just to be contrary, Kyurem used Ice Burn. This time, though, no one was able to intercept the blow and it hit Flapple head-on.

The Apple Pokémon shrieked, tottering and falling backwards, and Skye realised his time was up. With a flash of light, the massive Pokémon was returned, and Ghetsis looked smug. "Nothing can beat the power of White Kyurem,"

"Just because you've got Type advantage doesn't mean you have the advantage," Skye growled in response. "Necrozma, Dragon Pulse!"

"Outrage!" the self-proclaimed king replied. Kyurem ignored him and blazed forwards, avoiding the Dragon Pulse.

With Flapple gone, the Dynamax Storm was abating, and the snow was intensifying once more. Skye grimaced, knowing her team was on a time limit. Should she release another Pokémon? The issue was, none of them were strong enough to stand up to Kyurem . .

"Necrozma, time for a Z-Move!" Skye instructed, and her partner looked at her sharply. "No, not that one. The generic one," With a flourish, Skye's Dragonium-Z was set into her Z-Power Ring, and she raised it, posing. "Use Devastating Drake!"

Ghetsis frowned. "How many gimmicks do you have?"

"Not enough," Necrozma launched a roaring, winged projectile, that bathed Kyurem in light before striking him and shattering with a massive explosion. Skye groaned, feeling the backlash of the Z-Move, but it was worth it if it got her the win . . "How in Distortion is that thing still standing?" she groaned gesturing at White Kyurem, who looked singed but alive.

"Because no matter how many tricks you have up your sleeve, the truth is unassailable, and that truth is that I and Kyurem are superior!" Ghetsis roared.

"One more word out of you and I will throw you off this tower," Skye lowly threatened. "Keep going, Necrozma! He can't take much more of this!"

And suddenly Kyurem was physically assaulting her Pokémon in the throes of Outrage, striking from every direction and beating Necrozma downwards.

Laser-like crystals shot out of Necrozma's body, beating at Kyurem in response, each breaking after one hit but more constantly being generated. "Is that Power Gem? You didn't tell me you could learn Power Gem!" Skye complained. "Use Power Gem!"

Necrozma tried again, glowing crystals matching Kyurem's ice. Energy pulsed outwards, matched at every turn by a storm front of ice so cold that it burnt. Both seemed to be on their last legs.

But Necrozma had an edge, in the form of Neuroforce. His signature, exclusive ability meant each Power Gem hurt just a little bit more, and in the end, one perfectly executed Power Gem scored against Kyurem's frozen right wing.

Kyurem shrieked and spiralled, crashing into the side of the castle and landing in a sprawled mess nearby. There was a burst of light, and suddenly the Pokémon unfused, leaving a Reshiram pinned underneath an unconscious, but thankfully ordinary, Kyurem.

Skye smiled triumphantly as a battered Necrozma landed behind her. "Now, you were saying?"

"How dare you?!" Ghetsis suddenly roared. "You assault me? ME? The perfect king! I am the one who conquered Kyurem and Reshiram, I am perfection! It is an undeniable truth that I am meant to rule this world!"

Skye's eye twitched. "You want to talk truth?" she demanded. "I don't know about your 'undeniable truth', and I don't care! What's true is that a lot of Pokémon are dead down there because of your actions! What's true is that you're nothing but an egomaniac who'd rather see the world destroyed than as a place that you don't own! And what's true is that we just handed you your ass on a plate, and you are done! Watch," With that final proclamation, Skye sent an Ultra Ball spinning at Kyurem.

It bounced off harmlessly, and Ghetsis chuckled. "This cane is an invention given to me by my subordinate. It prevents Kyurem from being captured by any Pokéball!"

As soon as he finished talking, the cane was plucked from his hands and snapped over Skye's knee, where it sparked and died. "Thanks! That was really helpful," Her cheekiness was deliberate, and the man fumed.

With a flash of light, the Legendary Pokémon was sucked into the second Ultra Ball, which fell to the ground. Unfortunately, the capture failed and Kyurem was released, still unconscious. Skye sighed and threw another. "I brought like fifty Ultra Balls, I can do this all day," she assured Ghetsis.

"You think I'll just allow you?" the man snapped, making to lunge at her - but a growl from above forestalled him.

"Yeah, remember your whole 'no one can stop me because only I have the power of Pokémon' thing? Doesn't feel so good when you're on the receiving end, does it?" Skye smirked. It took a few more balls, but eventually Kyurem's capture registered, and she pocketed the Pokéball. "There's gotta be someone in this dimension who can take care of this," With Kyurem out of the way, Reshiram finally stood, looking at Skye with a grateful expression.

Ghetsis was still glaring bloody murder at her. Skye just snorted. "Don't worry, I'll make sure the police of this dimension find you. Heh. Hey, this dimension actually might survive! That'd be a first,"

She opened two more Pokéballs, and returned Necrozma. "Get some rest, buddy, we've got a long flight home. Kommo-o, keep an eye on this guy. Altaria, let's go see how the others are doing," Kommo-o roared in agreement, hunkering down and fixing Ghetsis with a lethal stare, and Altaria, with Skye riding her, took off.

Reshiram watched her go, looking thoughtful.

A/N

A/N

This dimension isn't over, there's going to be a follow-up.

Also, I couldn't find a good place to mention it, but N and the player character in this dimension were frozen alive by Kyurem and used as trophies inside Ghetsis' throne room. And, ironically, died of thirst inside unmeltable ice.


	10. Dimension W2UM 2

Dimension W2+UM #2

"Okay, long story short, this dimension is a wreck," Elio reported. "Massive casualties, human and Pokémon alike. It's so cold that even the Ice-Types froze. But with Kyurem out of the picture, the temperature's already rising. His power was somehow stopping the ice he created from melting or breaking, but after you knocked him out it started melting. The people in the cities who survived this long have made contact with this dimension's Home Islands. The damage is pretty bad even over there -"

Skye held up a hand. "Elio. Summarise," she instructed.

"Right. Lots of damage, but this world can probably recover. Apparently they'd been dealing with this for two weeks. Also, we have no idea where Atlus is," Elio grumbled.

"Good," Skye nodded, content. "Atlus can take care of himself. Is there anyone important around here? Someone needs to take care of Kyurem," She raised the Ultra Ball she'd used to capture Kyurem.

"I thought you were going to keep it?" Kris checked. All four field members of the Ultra Rescue Initiative were gathered in this dimension's Castelia City, where most of the surviving populace of Unova was gathered.

"I was, but if this dimension is gonna survive, then, well there's only one Kyurem in every dimension. I'd feel weird about leaving this dimension without one of its unique Legendaries. Besides, he might be more trouble than he's worth,"

"Unique Legendaries?" Kris parroted.

"Right. Okay, so there's two categories of Legendary Pokémon, the type that are whole species, and the type that there's only one of in each universe. The likes of Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres for example, and also Reshiram and Zekrom for that matter, fall into the first category. Meanwhile Kyurem, as well as others like the Creation Dragons and Lake Trio, there's only one of each. That said, there's some Legendaries where we don't know enough to say whether there's only one or multiple, like Xerneas and Yveltal. Though there is proof of multiple Zygarde, so . . point is, if this world is gonna survive, it's probably a bad idea to steal their Kyurem,"

"I personally wouldn't miss it, but that's just me," The four turned to see a tall man with an explosive mane of spiky red hair approaching them. "So I hear we have you lot to thank for this storm letting up?"

"If you mean I beat that Ghetsis guy, then yeah," Skye confirmed. "Uh . ."

"This is Alder. Retired former champion of Unova," Elio explained. "Apparently he's the only one left with anything approaching seniority,"

"The Gym Leaders all went to challenge Ghetsis. We might never know if they even made it," Alder rumbled. "Thank you, all of you. Because of you, our world might survive,"

"That's why we're here," Skye grinned.

"So, we already evacuated a bunch of people back to our dimension. Do we send them back here now, or . . ?" Kris asked.

"I dunno. This hasn't come up before," her leader responded.

"Do you not usually save worlds?" the Unova Champion asked.

Soliera piped up. "The first time we did this, the entire planet was being swallowed by water. Presumably it was the work of Kyogre, who we could not reach by dint of not having any sufficiently powerful subaquatic Pokémon. The second time, space itself was falling apart. This was not something we had the power to correct or prevent. We usually prioritise evacuating as many people and Pokémon as possible. This time, though, it seems like that might not be necessary," Alder nodded, understanding.

"I'll head back to the refugee camp and tell the people there to start coming back through the Ultra Warp Hole," Elio volunteered, striding off.

There was a great whooshing noise, and the five Trainers present started at seeing a massive white dragon land at their meeting spot on the edge of the city. "The legendary dragon?" Alder exclaimed.

"Reshiram? What are you doing here?" Skye frowned, recognising the Legendary Pokémon. The dragon crooned, bending its head and making eye contact, before bowing deferentially.

"I think Reshiram's taken a liking to you," Alder observed.

"Are you seriously going to catch another Legendary Dragon?" Kris groaned.

"Catch . ." Skye regraded Reshiram appraisingly. "Is that what you want, Reshiram? To come with me and help us?"

The Fire-Type tilted her head, considering the Trainer, before slowly nodding.

"And, you're sure that's alright? Because we live a really long way away, there won't exactly be many chances to visit," the URI leader pointed out.

"I don't think you know this particular Reshiram's history," Alder interrupted. "It's been sealed in a stone for hundreds of years, until it was freed by a Trainer named N, who became Reshiram's trainer. Given the circumstances, I suspect that N is dead. Reshiram isn't like most Legendaries, it has no established way to survive in the wild, it needs a trainer. I think having someone like you might be the best thing for it,"

"Is that so?" Skye looked back at Reshiram. "Well, if you're sure," She fished out a spare Ultra Ball she had left over from catching Kyurem and offered it. "Last chance to back out,"

Reshiram looked almost indignant as she touched the ball, being sucked in and caught instantly. The ball didn't even shiver.

"You get how this doesn't help your case of 'I'm not some overpowered super-trainer', right?" Kris felt the moment needed ruining.

"Oh, bite me," her leader scathingly retorted.

"It occurs to me that, as a Fire-Type, Reshiram is another Dragon that is not weak to Ice. So in that sense, your side objective was still successful," Soliera pointed out.

"Thanks, walking type chart," Skye smiled, showing the insult as good-natured, before looking back at Alder. "Oh, before I forget, here," She switched Reshiram's new Pokéball for Kyurem's on her belt. "You should take this. Stability of the dimension and such and such aside, I feel like Reshiram would be mad if I kept it,"

"That's Kyurem, isn't it?" Alder nodded. "Very well," He reached out to take it, but a sudden noise interrupted them, a booming, rolling noise of thunder.

"What was that?!" Kris exclaimed, looking around.

"Up there!" Soliera exclaimed, pointing up into the sky. Everyone followed her indication.

The clouds were being sucked upwards, like an inverted tornado. Beams of purple energy shone through the evaporating snowstorm, and an ominous rumbling echoed through Unova.

"Oh, what now?" Skye complained. "I thought we were done!"

A shape flashed within the growing storm, and suddenly a massive hand shot out of the heavens, into the countryside. Even from Castelia City, they could see the hand wrap its fingers around Dragonspiral Tower, the place where Skye had left Ghetsis, and rip it from the ground, lifting it into the air. The sight rendered the group speechless.

Slowly, the appendage rose, carrying the building with it, and Skye started. "Wait - Kommo-o's still over there! Necrozma!" she shouted, already running towards the golden dragon and clinging to his back. The Legendary took off, an Ultra Warp Hole ripping open in space, which they flew into. Idly, Skye realised that she was still holding Kyurem's Pokéball. Oh well, she'd give it to Alder after rescuing Kommo-o.

For a second, the colourful lights of the Ultra Warp Ride played around her, then they burst outwards - and had to pull up to avoid crashing into a massive purple wrist. As Necrozma swooped upwards, climbing the rising tower, Skye regraded the impossibly long arm reaching down from the heavens in bewilderment. "What in Distortion is that?"

It took a few minutes, by which time they were dangerously high up, but Necrozma levelled out at a speed matching the rising building. Kommo-o, who was still crouched over Necrozma, roared happily, seeing his Trainer.

Skye realised she was still holding Kyurem's Pokéball, and fumbled, switching it for Kommo-o's and clipping the former to her belt. "Return!" she commanded, and her Dragon vanished. She spared a glance for Ghetsis, but found him suddenly out of sight.

And then the man tackled her, surprisingly spry for his age. "You think you've won?" he challenged. "You've only delayed me!"

Skye's grip on her dragon slipped, and she fell backwards, holding herself in place with her legs. With one arm around Necrozma's shoulder, Ghetsis used his free hand to snatch Kyurem's Ultra Ball from Skye's belt. Necrozma bucked, trying to shake him off, but his goal was accomplished. "You haven't seen the last of me!" he roared. "I will become the king of all dimensions!" His feet landed on the collapsing remains of Dragonspiral Tower, and the hand holding it suddenly shot upwards, quickly vanishing into the clouds. Skye watched him go, helpless.

She frowned, shaking her head. "Okay, Necrozma, let's -" She was cut off, as suddenly the clouds cleared, revealing the source of the disruption.

An impossibly massive Ultra Warp Hole was floating above Unova.

But Skye only had a second to take it in, before suddenly the air itself moved towards the Warp Hole. And that wasn't all, for a split second she looked down, and saw rocks, trees, the land below was shifting upwards, breaking apart and being pulled in.

"Open a Warp Hole! Back to Castelia!" Skye shrieked, her voice definitely not turning shrill from panic, and Necrozma roared assent, spinning and ripping open a much smaller portal. The larger hole's gravity sucked them in, and Necrozma stopped fighting it, letting the gravity of the larger Hole pull them through the smaller one.

X

The partners erupted out of the ground in Castelia, the ground shaking. "Elio! Kris! Soliera! Where are you all?" Skye shouted, looking around.

"Here!" Kris shouted back. Skye had been gone for suck a short time that barely anyone had moved, only Elio running back to the refugees. "What's going on? Did you make that Warp Hole?"

"It's not ours!" Skye shouted back, the wind rushing past them and into the sky. "I don't know what's causing it, but its gravity is so strong it's going to suck all of Unova into it! Tell Elio, we can't waste Lunala on individual portals anymore!"

"Wait, if it's going to suck the whole region through, that's not too bad, right?!" Alder questioned. "It'll be in a different place, but worse things could happen!"

Skye fixed him with a dull glare. "Three words. Unova flavoured smoothie. It's so strong and sucking in so much, it's going to grind everything that goes through it into paste!"

Everyone went pale at that mental image. "Castelia's going to be airborne in a few minutes, we need to send this whole city into another dimension! Go! Me and Necrozma will look outside the city, see if there's anyone else we can rescue!" Skye declared, before patting Necrozma's neck. "I know you've been going hard today, buddy, but push through it. We've still got people to save,"

Necrozma groaned in agreement, and took off.

Kris, Alder and Soliera exchanged glances for a second. "I will inform Elio what has to be done. Gather as many people as you can in open spaces, I doubt the skyscrapers will all survive the transition," Soliera declared, pacing away.

"Distortion of an operation you've got," Alder observed.

"It's impressive, huh," Kris agreed with a smile.

X

Elio looked up at the massive Ultra Warp Hole in horror as Soliera recounted what had happened. "Unova flavoured smoothie. Right. That's one terrifying mental image,"

"Mister Elio?" Elio and Soliera turned to see a young Unovan child looking up at them, a sort of dull fear on her face. "Are we . . gonna die?"

"Don't talk like that," a woman who was presumably her mother reprimanded her. "I'm very sorry - please, carry on,"

Elio looked at them both, and realised that they, as well as however many thousands, tens of thousands possibly, of people in this city were all relying on him. Him and Lunala. The weight of what they were trying to do settled on his shoulders, heavier than ever before.

He looked at Lunala, and the Moone Pokémon looked back. _We're just a bunch of kids, _he thought to himself. _Who are we to try to save countless worlds?_

_The only ones who can,_ the thought came drifting back to him. Elio couldn't tell if the answer came from Lunala's Psychic typing or his own subconscious. Either way, they were right. "Lunala. Time for the grand finale," He produced a dark-coloured Z-Crystal, and clipped it into his Z-Power Ring. "Menacing Moonraze Maelstrom!" he roared, striking a pose. Energy flowed from his body and empowered Lunala, their bond made manifest in unlimited Z-Power.

Lunala shrieked, a high, unearthly noise that reverberated across dimensions, before soaring into the air and transforming, turning to a shade of light blue as she took on her Full Moone Phase. She spread her wings, and an Ultra Warp Hole appeared above Castelia. Right on cue, the gravity of the massive, higher Hole ripped the peninsula apart, the ground shaking. Amidst water and rubble, Castelia City floated into the air.

Lasers arced from Lunala's wings, meeting the edges of the Warp Hole and latching onto them, spreading them wider. "Don't worry, everyone!" Elio reassured them. "This portal's under our control, it's not like the big one, it's safe!"

Then there was an earth-shattering crash, and Castelia broke in half.

Elio blinked, looking across at the massive crack that split the city. "Uh . . okay, we can work with this. Lunala, keep it steady and bring it down! We need to keep the city steady. The sooner we're through that portal, the better!"

"If anyone has Pokémon that can help hold the city together, release them and enlist their aid!" Soliera shouted at the crowd. With flashes of light, Boldores, Sandiles, Krokoroks, Drillbur and Excadrill, Dwebble and Crustle appeared, and spires of rock shot out of the ground, bridging the gap. Castelia shook, and people collapsed as the sky quake faded, the floating city stabilised.

Lunala called out, and Elio noticed the portal was big enough to cover the entire city by this point. "Lunala! Now!" he called, and the bat nodded, bringing the portal downwards.

With a shake, Castelia City escaped its home dimension and entered the Ultra Warp Ride.

"Okay, Lunala. Well done," Elio smiled at his Legendary, who nodded. "Take us to the Ultra Plant. We've been planning to build a colony there anyway, this'll be a good start,"

X

Skye scanned the disintegrating country. It was hard to tell, but she wasn't seeing anyone . . anyone alive, anyway. Plenty of frozen corpses. Whatever that hand was going to do to Ghetsis was too good for him.

Necrozma dipped, and she patted his chest. "Stay with me, buddy. We're almost done," Peering through the flying debris surrounding them, Skye saw something moving. "There! Necrozma, go that way!" she commanded. Flapping his wings, Necrozma soared towards the source of the motion.

As the distance shrank, Skye blinked, seeing a bubble of Psychic energy, protecting . . some Unovan Psychic-Type. Duosion, was it? She could never remember the non-Dragons . .

Regardless, she and Necrozma were here to rescue them. "Come on, Necrozma, we're almost there. Just reach that Pokémon and open an Ultra Wormhole," she encouraged.

A chunk of ice hit the Dragon's head.

Necrozma was finally at his limit. He groaned, spiralling, and collapsed, only saved from falling by the upwards pull of the Warp Hole devouring Unova.

"Necrozma?" Skye patted her partner's neck. "Necrozma!" she shouted. "Necrozma, wake up! We're not done yet!" The unconscious dragon crashed into the soft, squishy form of the probably-a-Duosion, and the soft gel surrounding it stuck fast. The crystalline Pokémon was unresponsive as the three were sucked upwards.

Skye looked up again. The massive Ultra Warp Hole was drawing them in. Unova flavoured smoothie? Try Unova flavoured with a sprinkling of Dragon and Trainer.

"C'mon, come on! Wake up!" she yelled at Necrozma, pounding at his skin. Her Z-Power Ring touched his back crystals, and Skye paused. Z-Power . .

She fumbled, and withdrew a dark blue crystal, which slotted into her stone armband. Carefully locking her feet around Necrozma's waist, she stood and posed. "Use Devastating Drake!" Golden energy flowed from her body into Necrozma's, just as she was hoping it would. "Wake up," she pleaded with her exhausted partner.

No response.

Skye sighed, removing the Dragonium-Z. Somehow, she knew it would come to this. Carefully, not wanting to lose the precious crystals, she exchanged dark blue for gold. "Necrozma," Her partner's name was spoken more to prepare herself than to get his attention, which didn't work anyway. Skye triple checked that her feet were locked in place around his crystalline spikes, and she brought her hands to her forehead, before extending her right outwards. "Use Light That Burns The Sky,"

Z-Power flowed out of her at a vastly increased rate, the bond between herself and Necrozma made manifest and drawing on her very essence to empower her partner. As black spots danced in her vision and a trickle of blood emerged from her nose, Necrozma jolted awake, roaring in sudden exhilaration.

"Open a damn Warp Hole and get us out of here . ." Skye mumbled, her body going limp. The last thing she noticed was Necrozma's tail wrapping around her, before darkness claimed her vision.


	11. Dimension W2UM 3: Aftermath

**Dimension W2+UM #3: Aftermath**

"It's not every day that you transport a whole city to another dimension," Soliera offered.

Elio shrugged. "Well, if we're right and the multiverse really is infinite, then maybe that actually does happen somewhere every day,"

The Castelia City of a dimension that was probably still being eaten by that massive Ultra Warp Hole of unknown origin was settling into its new home, surrounded by an alien landscape of black rock and electrical plant Ultra Beasts.

Elio groaned, rubbing his eyes. Nearby, Lunala flopped to the ground, and Elio leant on his partner Legendary. Soliera eyed them both in concern. "Go back to base and get some rest. You look exhausted. Me and Kris will handle things here, you can come and pick us up tomorrow," she instructed.

"I'm supposed to be your superior, you know," Elio pointed out.

"Go," the alien reiterated.

"Fine, fine. Lunala, got one more Warp Hole in you?" In response his Pokémon tore open a hole in space under their feet, which the two sunk into.

X

Lunala glided back into the hangar of the Ultra Rescue Initiative, and Elio's drowsiness was slapped away by the sight of Necrozma peering anxiously through the adjoining window into the medical bay.

"Elio! Over here!" Lillie shouted, and Lunala barely landed without crashing. Elio slid off her back, and rubbed her neck. "Head up to the sanctuary and sleep it off. I'll come get you later," he instructed, before pacing towards the infirmary. Upon arrival, he was surprised to find both Skye and Atlus lying, unconscious, in berths with Lillie and Hoopa worrying over them.

Hoopa looked up as he entered, and a burst of telepathy assaulted his mind. _I'm sorry I screwed up the portal and me and Atlus ended up in a different part of the dimension and didn't know where you were and he couldn't handle the cold and I'm sorry!_

Any anger Elio might have felt for Atlus seemingly leaving them in the lurch evaporated, especially seeing the blue tint of what was surely frostbite across much of his body. "It's fine. We'll talk about it later," he numbly responded, turning to Skye and Lillie. "What did she do this time?"

Lillie wordlessly gestured to Skye's Z-Power Ring, which had been removed and was sitting on the bedside table. Elio's jaw tightened when he saw that the Ultranecrozium-Z was still attached to it. "Oh, tell me she didn't,"

"Actually, I don't think she did," Lillie mumbled. "I took some readings of Necrozma, and I think that he fell unconscious. Skye used a bastardised imitation of Light That Burns The Sky to give him enough energy to open an Ultra Warp Hole and get home,"

". . Oh," Elio nodded. "Fair enough, I guess," Better to have Skye unconscious than presumed dead.

"How did that dimension go?" Lillie questioned.

"Someone was using a Kyurem to freeze the world solid and rule the wasteland. We beat him, but then a massive Ultra Warp Hole opened up and started eating the entire region, maybe the planet. We saved as many as we could,"

Lillie went pale. "An Ultra Warp Hole?" she repeated.

"Yeah. It was weird," Elio agreed. "Rotom?"

"Zzzzrt?"

"Show her the pictures," Elio commanded, and his possessed Pokédex manifested, playing Lillie a slideshow of everything that had happened in the most recent dimension they'd visited.

"I've never seen a Warp Hole that big. Was it naturally occurring? That shouldn't be possible," his girlfriend mumbled, the blood draining from her face.

"There was nothing natural about it," All turned to see Skye sitting up and rubbing her eyes. "Yeah, I know it's a cliche to have someone wake up and interrupt at exactly the right moment, but come on that was perfect timing,"

Elio visibly decided not to engage with Skye's insanity. "What do you mean it wasn't natural?"

"There was . . some kind of massive purple hand coming out of that Ultra Warp Hole. I've never seen anything like it," the leader explained, rubbing her head. "Some kind of Pokémon did that. Or maybe an Ultra Beast. It ripped open that dimension, reached into it and took that world's Ghetsis and Kyurem, and then ate the rest of it,"

"A massive Ultra Beast that eats dimensions?" Elio gulped. "That's a terrifying thought,"

_A world eater?_ Hoopa echoed the sentiment. _I've never heard of anything like that! _

"Well, you wouldn't have. Such a creature could only exist in the void between universes," Skye gravely nodded. "We've got a big enemy somewhere out there,"

"Well . . what do we do about that?" Lillie asked, shaking her head in disbelief. "How do we fight it? _Can_ we fight it?"

Skye raised an eyebrow. "Lillie, you don't get it. We're not talking about some wild multidimensional kaiju here. It consciously rescued Ghetsis before eating that dimension. That betrays deliberation. A wild creature wouldn't bother with that. Whatever this thing is, it has a Trainer,"

"Well - well that's even worse!" Lillie protested, Elio nodding in agreement. "What can we even do about that?"

Skye shook her head. "More than anyone else can. We're the Ultra Rescue Initiative. This is our job. It's not like we thought this was gonna be easy,"

There was a moment of silence.

". . Man, I really thought the author was going to cut away from us there," the specialist grumbled. "That would have been a really badass way to end a chapter,"

"You're right, though. I just . . I need to get stronger, so I can help out too," Lillie declared, balling her fists.

"Lillie, you do plenty," Elio assured her. "Just because you're not out in the field doesn't mean you aren't a big help,"

"Still. If Skye's right and we have an enemy out there, what if they attack here? I need to be ready to defend myself," the blonde pointed out.

"I agree," Skye nodded. "Unfortunately, we only rescued one Legendary from that dimension, and I think he wants to stay with me," She looked down at her belt, considering Reshiram, and a smile tugged at her lips.

Lillie cast them both a questioning look.

"Ghetsis somehow fused that dimension's Kyurem and Reshiram into what he called a 'White Kyurem'. It was pretty tough but Necrozma beat it, and Reshiram was so grateful to me for releasing him that he decided to join my team. His old trainer being dead might also have had something to do with it, I dunno," Skye explained. "Point is, I finally have a full team!"

Lillie smiled and applauded. "Y'now, you could have had one ages ago if you were willing to train non-Dragons," Elio pointed out. "And having exactly six Pokémon only really matters in official tournaments like the League, which we generally don't bother with. I have nine,"

Skye shrugged. "It's the principle of the thing,"

"Okay, you need rest," the Champion elected. "Come on, Lillie. Let's go get some food. Let Skye sleep off all the strings that come attached to being Skye,"

"Never gonna happen! I'm awesome and you know it!" Skye hollered as they left.

Lillie stumbled over a green shape as they left the room, and frowned, looking down at the Duosion that had been pulled along with Necrozma during the escape from the destroyed dimension. "Oh. Hello there," she blinked in surprise.

The Duosion squeaked in panic and darted past her into the infirmary, trying to hide under Skye's bed as the closest source of cover.

Skye beat her leg against her mattress to startle it away. "No! Don't come to me! I'm a Dragon Specialist, damnit!"

The unfortunate Pokémon squealed, crossing the space to hide under Atlus' bed instead. Lillie and Hoopa watched in concern while Skye shrugged and turned away.

_'__Don't worry. I'll take care of this,'_ Hoopa telepathically assured Skye and Lillie, who nodded. "You could be a little nicer, you know," Lillie admonished Skye.

"Oh, relax. That Pokémon obviously doesn't want to be with you, and I won't take him. If this puts Atlus on the path to being a Psychic specialist, so be it," Skye shrugged. "Better him than me,"

Lillie frowned, looking between the Psychic Pokémon and Skye. "Sometimes I just don't understand you," she offered the team leader, turning to catch up with Elio.

"Good!" Skye shouted after her. "I like it that way!"


End file.
